Resident Evil: Kiss of the Spider
by Mark 'Manix' Odell
Summary: Concept unashamedly stolen wholesale from Spiderman but with no characters or setting, Leon and Claire get bitten by a very special spider...with unexpected results...!
1. Kiss of the Spider

**RESIDENT EVIL:**

**KISS OF THE SPIDER**

You aren't like me, you know. Like me and one other person, I mean. Not everybody has an ordinary life; I've waded knee-deep through the waters of the river Styx in my quest to bring down Umbrella Incorporated. I started off as a naïve Rookie cop, then I became a tough resistance fighter, and then…well…   I shouldn't have volunteered for that mission, in retrospect. I shouldn't have decided it was safe to enter the bio-weapons containment area either. We all make mistakes, hell it's part of human nature.   Although I don't think the word 'human' fully or accurately portrays my condition.   You aren't like me. Where does this begin? Well, it's a complex web of stories, but as most of the events of my recent life began, it began with one of the smallest types of organism in the world.    It began with a virus. Dr. Linklater admired the creature in the glass box, smiled at its angry puzzlement, at its apparent helplessness. It was, he recalled Sitticus Palustris or the Jumping Spider as it was more commonly known. Silky threads of its web criss-crossed in the glass case, shimmering beautifully in the low lighting. 

  This was to be the first of the specimens for experimentation with the aptly named Arachna-Virus, the latest viral strain customized from scratch by Linklater himself. Umbrella, always on the lookout for new forms of weaponry to sell to the highest bidder, had taken a sceptical interest in Linklater's research. It was possible, he theorized, to enhance a whole new breed of spiders; intelligence, strength, venom…without changing its outside appearance, a great fall-down of the T-Virus infected spiders, which were also cumbersome and stupid. No, the best weapons were the most silent.

    However, despite Umbrella's eagerness to use Black Widows as the initial test batch, Linklater had pointed out the potential problems. The venom might react with the virus, he had explained, it was uncertain until they had tested the virus on the venom independently – the spiders could die very quickly, or it could drive them mad to eat each other. Due to the fact none of these alternatives were very pleasant, Umbrella had relented and allowed him to perform the first of his tests on a group of Jumping Spiders. The Arachna-Virus was a brilliantly designed piece of genetic engineering. It was designed to change an arachnid's genetic structure, although he had insisted on Spiders being the lone contractors of the virus. A human reaction was not one that could be predicted easily, a risk Umbrella was not willing to take after the Birkin incident. So here he was, the first vial of Arachna-Virus synthesized, and the first test subject being anaesthetised – a risk taken by the researchers just in case its bite became poisonous. 

    Dr. Bauer approached him from the left, footsteps stealthy and silent, but Linklater's acute hearing picked up his arrival anyway.

     "When will the team be ready?" Linklater asked curtly, running a hand through his short black hair with grey flecks on his sideburns to indicate a certain amount of age.

     "Calm down Fran, they'll be ready; we know this project of yours means a lot to you, but-"

      "Too damn right it does!" Linklater interrupted; he'd never liked the company of people very much. 

      "Well, they'll be starting in a minute so don't worry; come on, let's get behind the glass"

    Linklater reluctantly allowed Bauer to lead him out of the test chamber, as a group of be-suited technicians walked in, anaesthetic clasped in the hand of one, and an empty syringe in the other. From behind the thick glass between him and the blue lit octagonal chamber, he saw them ready the creature, its spindly limbs relaxing as one of the men flicked the injection needle, and slowly pressed the needle into the creature, pressing slowly but gently.

       Linklater watched with a dry mouth as they finished the operation. The spider was unharmed, the needle was far smaller and not designed to structurally harm its body. Then, in a blur of fifteen minutes, it was all over. The technicians had left the room, and Bauer and Linklater walked back into the room, to peer tensely at the small spider, which appeared to be waking up.

      Bauer bit his lip; this first test was very important, if this failed to cut the muster god knew what Umbrella would do – millions of dollars and time had been put into Linklaters pet project, and with the arrival of the Nemesis parasite in greater quantities and further streamlining of the G-Virus, the Arachna Virus had to hold its own.

      The spider walked around its box, not aware of what was happening to its body at that moment.

      "It won't be an immediate reaction" Linklater said, in what he hoped was a voice that suggested he believed it "It's not designed to react too quickly."

      Bauer nodded.

      "I'll get a team to monitor its development around the clock, then we can give some results to those pen-pushing assholes in White Umbrella."

      "Good" Linklater replied, turning smartly to walk out of the room "I'll see you later, then I'll check on the Spider myself to see how it is doing."

       With that, he was gone, Bauer watching him go. He shuddered for no readily apparent reason; it felt odd to him, the fact that this spider seemed so…ordinary ater such a strong dosage of the Arachna Virus. Maybe, like Linklater suggested, it was a slower reaction than the G-Virus. Bauer didn't often feel out of sorts with his experiments, but just for once…well…he did. He allowed his eyes to be dragged to the spider. He watched it spinning its web again, and then he picked up the box it was in. He picked it up, striding purposefully out of the room.

      _This spider _he thought, watching it jump against the walls _gives me the creeps._

THREE DAYS LATER 

****

   Leon S. Kennedy adjusted the harness of his parachute, and made the final safety checks. Much to his satisfaction, everything was smooth and tightly strapped on. He was glad that the plane was still in the air, still thundering through the sky over the red rock canyons and formations of Arizona, where the rebels were heading on yet another mission, this time what was termed an 'R n D' strike, basically to take out a research base before it had even begun its research, information gleaned by Barry Burton and which he had seemed very excited about. He and Claire had decided to infiltrate the facility from above, while Chris and Jill would bust in the front gates in a stolen vehicle to provide a sufficient distraction. It was one hell of a building, all thick concrete, advanced security systems and heavily armed troops. Chris and Jill, it was decided, would rendezvous with them as their escape force. Rebecca was going too, due to the nature of the mission; she was the only one among them who really understood biochemistry.

   He gazed over at the beautiful form of Claire, as she tightened the straps of her 'chute and smiled wanly at him. She was a beauty, he thought, she looked amazing and to top it off she had the type of character and charm that was also utterly amazing.

    "Ever parachuted before?" she asked.

    "Once or twice" he replied, with a shrug "Charity purposes, you know. I know they trained us to hit the spot here, but it doesn't make you a pro overnight…"

    "Tell me about it" Claire sighed, "I don't think we did it enough times"

    "Think we'll hit the spot?" Leon said casually, as he checked his weapons. He'd already checked them three times but he didn't want to appear to be staring at Claire, so he wanted an excuse to do it indirectly. 

    "Well, Barry said the bomb would blow big enough to tear a huge hole in the roof, so yeah, I guess so."

 The aforementioned bomb was being dropped from the plane as Leon and Cloaire jumped, the explosion tearing the roof into dusty fragments quickly enough for them to land right in the middle of the base.

     Rebecca sat down, looking decidedly unwell, her face pale and sullen.

    "Not feeling too good?" Leon asked, smiling.

    She shook her head.

     "I got this aversion to heights," she said, embarrassedly "Kind of dumb, huh?"

     "Not really" Claire replied, shrugging "I hate Spiders. They totally freak me out!"

     "For me it's claustrophobia; I hate small spaces" Leon added "Providing you listened yesterday, I don't think you'll have much trouble with the jump"

     Rebecca smiled, nodding a little.

     "Yeah, I guess you're right"

   Leon's radio crackled.

      "Leon, are you there? Over"

      Leon slipped it out of his belt, and clicked the button.

      "I'm here, Chris. Speak now or forever hold your peace"

      "Funny man" Chris replied without humour "We're going to hit the gates in ten minutes, you got that? That's fifteen minutes to get inside the lab and plant the incendiaries, and grab as much gene data regarding Umbrella as you can."

       "We know, we listened" Claire said, leaning over.

       "Tell my erstwhile sister to keep her mouth shut!" Chris chuckled.

       "Not my place to do that Chris, she's a lovely young lady, I can't bring myself to verbally abuse pretty girls"

        Claire grinned, blushing a bit.

        "Wipe the drool from your chin…" Chris replied "…and jump. See you in twenty, over and out"

         It clicked off.

         "Come on" Claire said, clipping her belt "Let's get ready for the biggest dive since the Wall Street Crash"

         They lined up by the hatch-door, cold air whipping at their hair as they looked down at the base, looking like a rather impressive Lego set from this height, if 'Genetic Research Base' existed in the Lego range.

       "I'm dropping it now!" the pilot bellowed.

      They watched the small black object plunge down from the belly of the airplane, and check their watches; the slightest poor timing could ruin everything. The second hand of Leon's watch slowly and laboriously made its way up to the final digit. 

        They pulled their goggles down; and then, it was time.

          "GO!" Leon yelled, Claire diving out, then Rebecca if somewhat more nervously and with a wail that aptly presented her fear of heights perfectly. Then he jumped, feeling the cold air pummel him as he almost floated down, arms outstretched as he tried to manoeuvre towards the target, the central dome. From his perspective, he could see Claire sliding into place, with Rebecca flailing a little more but nonetheless getting the hang of moving. 

        The explosion was muted, and he knew this was the moment to yank the cord. He did so, just as he thought the wind was going to thump him unconscious. He felt his back jerk, and then Leon was staring down at his feet as the installation, which was now much closer, grew larger, the explosion dying away as he drifted closer to his target zone. He looked to his left briefly, seeing Claire and Rebecca also with their black 'chutes open, as the three of them plunged into the beating heart of the research complex.  

  Bauer felt the explosion, the room shook with the impact as the emergency lighting came on, the warning lights burning brightly as sirens howled the one message; something was very, very wrong.

   He stumbled against the table of the analysis room where he'd been making notes on Subject X1. Subject X1's change had been gradual but definitely noticeable; faster, stronger, more agile…they'd had to get a new glass tank for it in case it was able to bust its way out of the old one. Linklater had been ecstatic, his demeanour filled with a boyish joy and optimism that Bauer hadn't seen for many a day; all was going very well, and they'd have something to show Umbrella's board of Directors – but now this had happened. 

     The walls shook, and the ceiling dented downward; Bauer looked up in horror, one of the support struts had been severed, the room was going to cave in soon! 

     Linklater ran in, face a mask of fury.

     "What the hell is going on?!" he yelled.

     "I don't know!" Bauer replied, above the sound of the sirens "It sounds like a break in!" 

     Linklater thumped the table with his left hand, snarling angrily.

     "Nobody will take my virus!! NOBODY!!" 

     He strode over to the wall, grabbing a vial of Arachna-Virus from a wall cabinet that had been recently synthesized, slipping it into his pocket, then turning to the glass box, grabbing it and hefting it under one arm as Bauer looked on in astonishment.

     "What are you doing?!" Bauer asked, incredulously.

     "I am not losing my life's work!" Linklater snapped "Take the results sheets too, we're going!" 

     "Aren't you being a little rash?"

     Linklater turned to stare at him ferocious.

     "You can stay if you want to die, Aaron, but I'm going! I am _not _risking it!" 

     He turned and ran out of the room. It took a moment for Bauer to follow, his legs rigid with shock and confusion, but as they ran down the corridor towards the exit, there was a horrendous squeal of metal. Bauer noticed too late, as the support girder twisted then snapped, collapsing down and striking Linklater hard across the back. Linklater barely made a sound, a barely audible grunt as he toppled over.

    The glass case smashed, the spider inside quickly and deliberately making its escape, springing onto a nearby wall and crawling up towards the shattered ceiling.

  Bauer didn't notice, he was kneeling beside his old friend as the lifeblood drained from his body.

     "Fran!" he whispered, urgently.

     "Take…the virus…" Linklater breathed, "…I don't want to…have…died for…nothing…"

     Then he breathed his last, and died under the ton-heavy metal girder. Bauer gently closed his eyes, and then took the vial from the man's outstretched hand.

     "Goodbye old friend" he said, running towards the escape door into the underground train station.

      He did not however, notice the spider. It stayed, waiting at the top of the wall. Watching…and waiting.

    At the same time, Leon had unclipped his parachute and had withdrawn both of his Uzis, pulling the triggers and sending bullets tearing into the four surprised guards running to apprehend him. Rebecca had her Beretta, and Claire was using the AK-47. 

    Claire fired accurately, the troops charging at her arching back and crashing onto the floor in pools of their own blood.

     "Now what?" Claire asked Leon.

     "Let's get the documentation then place the charges" Leon replied "Come on, according to that…" he waved his weapons at a stencilled sign on the utilitarian wall "…the Analysis room is that way. Sounds like a ripe location"

     "I'll stay there while you guys place the charges, to see what I can make of it" Rebecca added, as they started to run.

     "Okay, come on!" Leon said, holstering the Uzis and withdrawing the MP-5 Assault Rifle he'd been given as his main weapon.

     He grabbed his communicator, and clicked the button. Outside, Chris and Jill in the truck safely outside the compound gates, received the message.

      "You ready?" Chris asked.

      "We're getting some material now" Leon replied "It's best if you get in, I know they're going to send everybody they got on the payroll after us soon!"

      Chris nodded, clicking the communicator off as Jill loaded her Assault Rifle. 

       "We going?" she asked.

       "Yep" Chris replied, patting his girlfriend on the knee with a smile "Come on, let's kick some ass"

      She grinned back at him, leaning over to bite his earlobe.

       "Right behind you" she whispered, with a brief kiss.

   Chris smiled, winking, then he gunned the engine of the jeep and took them roaring up the tarmac towards the solid steel gates. The guards, distracted by the explosion, turned to wave off the speeding vehicle. Jill leaned out , wind streaming through her hair, and she fired a precise shot into the right guards groin, causing him to collapse on his knees in sheer pain. Chris, one hand on the wheel, took the sub-automatic pistol from his holster, and sent six bullets into the man's upper leg and side, giving them carte blanche to crash through the gates.

      "They're way too heavy" Jill remarked, "We're going to have to weaken them first"

     "You read my mind" Chris replied, as Jill withdrew the bazooka from the back seat, waiting until Chris had reversed a safe distance away before climbing out, prepping the weapon, and then aiming.

      "Fire in the hole!" she yelled, Chris ducked.

     The rocket whistled from the barrel, and shrieked towards the gate. The solid iron- gate was consumed by fire, the gates denting hard inward as the indoor deadbolt snapped.

       Jill climbed back in, and Chris put his foot down, a grin plastered across his face. They'd modified the front of the jeep for this purpose, so that the doors flew inwards as Chris took them into the forecourt of the compound. Withdrawing an Uzi, he fired at the troops already raising their weapons. Bullets whistled past Chris's head as he expertly picked off the troops one by one; but there were far too many for Chris or Jill to deal with on their own; it was a large facility. The jeep arced, and Chris did an expert hand brake turn to avoid the rocket that had been aimed at the comparatively frail bodywork of the jeep.

     Taking the jeep screeching into the vehicle compound, he braked hard before they hit the solid concrete at a lethal speed.

      "Come on" he said, lightly punching Jill's shoulder "Let's find the other three"

They'd had to deal with several troops, but most of them were most likely elsewhere at the moment. With the preliminary power out, the security systems were disarmed, as were all electronic door-locks. Everything opened at the slightest push. The analysis room was where they were headed right now, to get some material on Umbrella before they planted their explosives and got out, quickly. 

    It seemed to Leon that they were all in a rush; that was understandable, they were moving quickly down the narrow dim hallway. None of them wanted to stay any longer than was absolutely necessary. 

     "Whoa, guys!" Claire raised her hand as she called out.

  They stopped, and saw Claire stoop; she was looking at the corpse of a scientist, underneath a fairly hefty girder. Beside him, was a partly smashed glass box, which looked like it had been created to accommodate some kind of insect…

     Leon reached inside curiously, and pulled out strands of silky threads; as he looked at them, he realised they were spider-webs.

      "Why the hell was he carrying a spider around with him?" he mused out loud.

      "Search me" Claire replied, looking curiously at the box. 

    Rebecca shrugged, climbing over the girder to get at the man's credentials; she plucked them from a pocket.

      "Let's see…Dr. Francis Linklater, head research scientist. Seems he was a project director of one of Umbrella's new experiments" 

      "…Most likely an experiment involving spiders" Leon reasoned "But what sort of experiment?"

       Leon stood up, watching the two women searching for more clues. So distracted were the three of them, that they didn't see the spider gently spinning down from the ceiling, and drop onto Leon's shoulder. It scuttled under the folds of his combat vest and waited.

      "Come on, let's see if we can find out about his 'experiments'" Claire said, nodding at Leon, who nodded back. He followed behind them, bringing up the rear; therefore, nobody saw the spider on his shoulder. 

   The Analysis room was lit red with emergency lighting, Rebecca immediately ran over to the wall consoles, jabbing a few buttons.

    "Damn, the computers are down! Right, let's see if there's any printout…" 

    She began to rifle through the thick sheaf of papers in a tray by the computer, while Claire looked around the room cautiously, raising her rifle. She had...well…a feeling? A bad one, definitely though; there had to be something here, she hadn't seen any creatures yet, and most Umbrella research bases _always _had some creatures in it. 

    Leon peered around the room.

      "Anything in there Rebecca?" he asked, as his eyes scanned every object, nook and cranny for any movement.

    The spider crawled over to the exposed area of his neck, settling down there unmoving. It was an angry spider; after being cooped up in a glass box for a week it had a reason to be. Leon was sure he felt something; but by the time he registered anything it was too late. The spindly creature bared its fangs, and sank them deep in the skin of Leon's lower neck. 

    "OW!" Leon cried, swiping at his shoulder; the creature landed on Claire's left buttock and quickly scrambled up to find cover under her ammo-pack.

     Claire and Rebecca spun around.

     "Leon, you okay?" Claire asked, concerned.

     "Something bit me!" Leon replied, wincing a little. 

     "What was it?" Rebecca asked, thinking that she already knew the answer. 

     "I don't know!" Leon snapped "All I know is that I brushed it off my shoulder, and god knows where it is now"  
     "Spider-bite…" Rebecca murmured, feeling worry creep into her voice.

     "Is there any chance of it being poisonous?" Claire asked, raising her rifle; the spider sped up her back towards her shoulder. 

      Leon raised his rifle, looking around on the floor for the thing, idly rubbing his bite every now and then. 

      "I doubt it…" Rebecca said, peering at the sheaf of papers she'd salvaged "…apparently, their one and only test subject was a jumping spider, essentially harmless in every way"

      "Could they have made it poisonous?" Claire asked, as the tiny spider scuttled toward her wrist.

      "Hmm, I don't think even Umbrella could synthesize venom for a harmless spider" Rebecca said, doubtfully "Its bite might have effects, but nothing lethal"

      "It could be anywhere" Leon said, "Do you think it could be on one of us…?"

      The spider bit hard into Claire's wrist.

      "JESUS!" she exclaimed, shaking her hand in surprise. They all watched the spider tumble to the floor, and saw it try to scuttle off.

      "Oh no you don't!" Leon spat, and tried to shoot at it, but it was too late, the spider already having already disappeared into the shadows behind a console.

      "Damn, we lost it!" Claire said, kicking the ground in annoyance.

      "Whoa, guys" Rebecca raised her hands "Enough, come on; I'll just grab these sheets and disks, then we can go and lay these charges. We'd know by now if the bite was lethal, so just relax and I'll take a look at you when we get back" 

         Leon and Claire nodded, albeit reluctantly. Claire rubbed her wrist irritably, staring at the two tiny holes in her skin. As she followed Leon out, she could see, close up, the puncture wounds on his lower neck. 

        "Let's lay these explosives then" Leon said.

Six explosive devices later, they were gathered around the final one as Leon set the timer.

   His radio crackled.

   "Leon, have you guys set the charges, over?"

    It was Chris, Claire took the receiver.

     "Nearly done; we're almost out of ammo, you guys had better hurry up! We're in Storage Room B"

     "Perfect, that's near the vehicle pool. We'll be with you shortly"

     "Okay, over and-"

     "Uuh…" Leon groaned, rubbing his eyes.

   The two of them turned to look at Leon in horror, as he stumbled back groggily, face a pale, waxy colour. 

    Leon didn't feel well, his eyesight was slowly losing focus and was shifting into an uncomfortable double-vision mode. He shivered, he felt cold all over.

     "Leon!!" Claire exclaimed, as Leon staggered onto his knees.

     "Feel…cold…" he mumbled, lying on his side.

     "It's a fever" Rebecca stated "Claire, help me-!".

    She never finished, because as she said it, Claire too was taking on an ill colour, her knees folding up as she clutched her head.

      "Don't feel so good…" she moaned.

       Rebecca grabbed the radio, and spoke quickly.

      "Chris, Jill! Leon and Claire are sick, a spider-bite I think! You've got to help me get them to the jeep!" 

      At that moment, Chris and Jill burst in through the door of the storeroom to take in the scene.

      "What the hell…?" he began.

      "They've been bitten by a spider!" Rebecca explained, as Jill ran forward to haul Claire up, slinging her arm around her shoulder "We've got to get them out of here so I can have a look at them!"

       "Well, let's not waste any time then!" Chris exclaimed, pulling Leon up and supporting him "Come on, let's go"  
   The party moved slowly, Rebecca nervously picking off any troopers as Chris and Jill pulled Leon and Claire into the motor pool, and then lay them down in the back of the jeep.

    Rebecca leapt in the back, pulling out the medical kit as Chris and Jill leapt into the front, this time Jill in the driving seat.

    "I'll drive" Jill said, without any protest from Chris. He pulled out his AK-47, and loaded it.

      Leon and Claire didn't hear much of what came next. The squeal of tyres, the ethereal echo of gunfire, the feeling of movement, the knowledge they had escaped…Leon's last blurry vision was of being hauled into a helicopter, Barry's voice yelling as Rebecca looked over him…and then nothing.

    He descended into a dark, uncomfortable sleep, just as Claire did.

    They both dreamt about the same thing.

     Spiders.


	2. NON-STORY: Author Apology

Author note: Sorry about the lack of paragraphing, something I couldn't help (  
  
Hope it doesn't make it unreadable! (  
  
Yours,  
  
-Mark 'Manix' Odell 


	3. Change is always Gradual

Chris yawned, swigging from his mug of coffee; Jill sat by him, also drinking from some steaming black coffee with Barry and Sherry both looking very tired, sitting looking at Rebecca. At the table, they all listened to Rebecca talking. Leon and Claire had been put to bed, in separate rooms naturally. It was two in the morning, and Rebecca was explaining what the hell was going on.

   "So, it's not fatal?" Chris said for the fourth time, this time finally being heard.

   "They'd be dead by now if it was" Rebecca explained "But there is something that…well…may not be particularly good for them."

   "Not particularly good for them" Jill stated flatly "You think the spider bite might have some unpleasant side effects, right?"

   "Their feverish state seems to have been brought on by some extreme hormonal change; not like oestrogen or anything like that, sort of like growth hormones or other types you see during puberty" 

    The word that hung in the air began with an 'm' and it wasn't a particularly pleasant one.

    "They're mutating?" Barry said, at last.

    "Yes" Rebecca replied, "I don't know how. We're going to have to cross our fingers and hope it's not extreme." 

    "Is that all we can do? Hope?" Sherry sighed.

    "Not much else we can do" Rebecca said kindly, "What happens next is all in the lap of god"

   Leon awoke at last, light spilling across the sheets under which he lay. Leon was aware that he felt fine. His fever had disappeared, and if anything he felt better than before he'd become feverish; crisp, alert and fresher than mountain dew in an advert for mineral water. He sat up, rubbing his eyes and looked out of the window. This was the house they'd bought in the city to lie low in after each campaign – Umbrella wouldn't dare touch them there, even if they knew. 

     Leon, Claire, Rebecca, Jill and Chris all earned money for the many times they weren't out shooting up Umbrella's interests. They worked part time; Claire on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays in an office with Leon, with salaries that were oddly larger than the norm; it could be assumed this had something to do with Trent, their secret informant. Chris, who out and out hated that sort of environment, worked down at the Shooting Range as a supervisor, with Jill oddly enough. Rebecca was a consultant for the local hospital, Sherry went to school. 

     He looked at the time; he'd be late for work if he didn't shift soon. He sprung out of bed, a little more athletic than usual. During his brief sojourn in the shower, he noticed how his bite didn't itch anymore, but paid little heed, even as he left, pulled on a dressing gown and then walked back into his room. En route, he met Claire, also looking bright and very much alive. She was smiling broadly. 

     "Hey Leon! Still alive, huh?" 

   She playfully punched him, and he found himself wincing; funny, shouldn't hurt like that…

    Claire looked him over.

    "Have you been working out? You just look a bit more…" she blushed "…athletic."

    Leon looked down at himself. It wasn't that he hadn't been fit before, but he had certainly bulked up a little. Not to big proportions, more like the T-1000 had been in Terminator 2. 

    _Odd metaphor _he thought, and smiled.

    "Dunno, really don't know Claire. Anyways, we're going to be late soon if we don't hurry up!"

   "Sure, see you at breakfast!" she said, rushing into the shower. Leon got changed quickly, into a blue work-shirt, black trousers and a red penguin tie that Claire had picked for him. He grabbed his jacket, and ran downstairs, putting his left hand down on the banister rail, and then with a swift and effortless movement, flipped his entire body backward over to land on the floor on his own two feet. He blinked, and flexed his fingers.

    That certainly wasn't something he'd done before. Weird. 

  He jogged over to the kitchen, where the others were sitting at breakfast. They all looked up as he walked in, smiling cheerfully.

     "Morning everybody!" he chirped, sauntering over to the coffee maker. 

     Chris decided to ask the first question.

     "You feeling okay?" Chris enquired.

     "Absolutely fine, never better; the fever's gone" Leon replied, as he waited for the coffee to brew. 

     "You certainly look very chipper this morning!" Jill remarked, sipping her orange juice. 

     "Claire's fine too, she'll be down in a mo" he added, as the coffee began to heat up. 

    "So you're both okay?" Sherry said, hopefully "Nothing's wrong?" 

    "Nope!" Leon replied, with a broad grin at her, winking.

  Rebecca chanced a cautious look at Sherry, before she turned back toward Leon.

     "Hey, before you go, mind if I give you both an X-ray? Just for scientific purposes?"

    "Um…" Leon scratched his head "…sure, if you like"    

   Chris nodded at Rebecca, agreeing vehemently with her suggestion. It wasn't like Rebecca was always like this, but when it came to biology and medicine there was really nobody else to ask.

    Leon felt something tingling his neck.

   Suddenly, behind his normal field of vision, an image flittered past; of colliding bodies, of plates…it was like a film had slipped its sprockets for a few moments, btu he saw it. On impulse, he leapt toward where Jill was sitting.

    Jill stood up, as did Sherry; neither of them was aware of each other, until Sherry walked into Jill, who tipped backward and the four plates shed' been carrying flew into mid-air.

     The movement that Leon had made reached them just as the plates flew up into the air, and as they came down he caught them in one hand, one by one. They all stared in amazement as Leon looked at them, feeling uncomfortable under their withering gaze. 

     "What?" he asked irritably. 

     "You moved before it even happened, how the hell did you do that?" Chris asked, in disbelief. 

     "I…I…" Leon felt insecure "I don't...know..."

     He grabbed the coffee, and sat down, studiously ignoring them for the rest of breakfast, despite their stares.

    Claire was getting dressed. She didn't know why she felt fine, but something side her was saying that not everything was as it should be. Maybe it was because of the fact she'd known that bar of soap was going to be on the floor before she even stepped inside. It had obviously fallen, but before she would have just walked in and slipped on the damned thing. 

    How could she have known?

  It could just be a coincidence or something. What certainly wasn't a coincidence were the odd looking blemishes on her wrists; they were like she'd been burned, not very noticeable but pigmented so that if you looked closely enough you could see them. And Claire certainly could, particularly when she was scrubbing herself. 

   She decided that at work, or in the car, she'd ask Leon if he had the same blemishes; she had, so he might too…after all, they were both bitten by a spider…

    As she finished dressing, she frowned in the mirror. The spider bite. Did that have a role to play in this? It was like something out of Spiderman; except that was fiction, this wasn't. She laughed the thought away. 

     _Don't be stupid _she thought as she walked downstairs for her breakfast _you'll be thinking that you are Spiderman next. Well, SpiderGIRL, actually_. 

     As she got into the kitchen, she noticed the tense silence.

     "Um…is everything okay?" 

     Leon looked up, half-smiling.

      "Hey Claire, want some breakfast?"

      "Sure…" she said, a little uncertainly considering how apprehensive he seemed. Everybody smiled a little sheepishly at her; by this, she could see that Leon wasn't totally happy with them for some reason. 

      "What's going on?" she asked firmly, deciding to get to the bottom of it. 

      "I caught some plates, and everybody thought it was weird beyond belief." Leon replied "So what? I just caught some plates"

      "Yeah, but you'd started moving five seconds before and were there to catch them! You didn't even see me and Sherry collide" Jill pointed out. 

       "Okay, you don't need to keep pointing it out!" Leon replied, again irritable. 

"Leon, can we do that scan?" Rebecca said, eager to prevent conflict "You as well Claire?"

"Sure, come on Claire" Leon responded, Rebecca guided them towards the small tool-shed, converted into a laboratory for purposes of studying Umbrella's records and samples that they often retrieved from their trips. She scanned them one at a time, taking notes discreetly and then dismissing them like a schoolteacher would to her students. 

   Leon was relieved to leave the house, he didn't like the stares he was being given by the others. 

   He could barely wait to get out of the door, no sooner had Claire finished brushing her teeth he was dragging her out into the morning air.

  "I think Leon's a bit touchy" Chris said, turning to Jill.

  "I think he's just feeling a bit insecure, the feeling that everybody's watching him; I think we ought to be less obvious next time"

   Rebecca nodded.

   "Just keep one eye out. I think they'll feel intimidated otherwise"

   Chris shrugged.

    "Yeah, I guess" he sighed "Anyway, come on Jill; we're going to be late ourselves if we're not careful!"

    Jill nodded.

    "Come on, give your teeth a scrub"

    Chris moaned a little.

     "Do I have to?" he asked, like a five year old child being scolded to do something he desperately didn't want to do. They'd been through this so many times; Jill was slowly but surely grounding him; she'd made him quit smoking and was ensuring his personal hygiene remained constant, and one way to do this was the regular brushing of teeth, something Chris saw as a waste of time in the morning.

      "Want your breath to smell like a dead rhinoceros?" Jill said, in clipped tones.

       "Okay, okay…" he replied, plodding upstairs towards the bathroom.

       "Come on Sherry, get your bag" Jill said, turning to Sherry. Sherry's school was closer to where they worked than Leon and Claire, so Chris and Jill gave her the lifts in the morning. Barry was still asleep, so they decided to leave the house discreetly before he woke up.

        "Alright Jill!" Sherry said cheerfully with a beam, as she shouldered her bag "is that lazy mule Chris going to keep us all day?"

        "Hey, that's my boyfriend you know!" Jill scolded playfully, grinning as she said it.

   "My condolences" Sherry giggled.

   Chris heard this as he walked down, and grinned roguishly at her.

   "Ah, shuddup" he said, waving his hand at her dismissively.  

"I mean, what are they bothered about?" Leon said, as he drove the car up towards the building where they both worked. 

 Claire looked down at her lap.

  "I don't know Leon…maybe we really are changing"

 Leon considered this; something inside him told his soul that this was true. That elegant backflip from the stairs, the catching of the plates by seeing the event before it had happened…what was this? He certainly hadn't been like it before.

    Claire unsheathed her cuff, showing Leon the blemish on her skin.

     "Look at this. I have it on my other hand as well, do you have them?"

     Leon stared at it, eyebrows furrowing. He hadn't looked, to be honest; so on cue, she pulled up his sleeve to look at his wrist. Sure enough, on the underside of the skin of the wrist, Leon saw an odd but only mildly pigmented blotch that looked like Claire's.

     "What the hell is it…?" he mused out loud.

     "I don't know" she replied, as Leon brought the car to a skilful stop outside the towering construction of steel and glass that evoked a true sense of the modern age, the modern day cathedrals of mankind; okay, so they didn't look as pretty or awe-inspiring, but were still damned big. 

     "You think we should be worried about it?" Leon asked, "I mean, we've seen one or two changes, what if it got worse?"

     Claire bit her lip.

     "I…don't want to think about that" she murmured "Just promise me you'll call me on the internal phone or come and find me if you find anything out, okay?"

     Leon smiled, clasping her hand in his.

    "I promise" he said quietly, voice imbued with what Claire had recognised to be the spirit he reserved for very tender and true moments. "Come on, we're going to be late"  

   "I'm scared, Leon" she said, quietly "What if this turns out to be a real curse?"

   "Claire, I swear what is happening to us will ruin our lives, okay?" Leon replied, squeezing her hand yet tighter. 

   She smiled at him, as they clambered out of the car into the clear morning sunshine.

     Yet another day of being a working drone for a processing company was about to begin; except this day was going to be slightly different.

   Leon stood impatiently in the queue to the photocopier, tapping his foot lightly on the ground as he waited for the man to finish his ridiculous amount of photocopying. The repetitive, droning sound of the copier at work got on his nerves, and made him more on edge than usual. He didn't like mechanical machines like these on principal; they jammed, they got stuck, they crashed, they whined…at least computers told you why, even if it was in a near impossible to comprehend fashion. 

     He had to copy twelve or so pages for the boss, and this lug in front of him was seriously wasting his time.

    "Hey Reeves, could you _please _hurry up?!" Leon exclaimed after a while. 

    Reeves, from accounts, turned to him, face dark.

     "The accounting copier's broke, so I'm up here. Got a problem with that?"

     "Well why are you taking so damned long?" Leon replied, in frustration.

     "Accounts have to have copies of everything, in triplicate" Reeves said, in that fatuous way Leon was used to him using whenever it involved exemplifying the importance of his job.

     "Damn it, you're an assistant accountant, stop making it sound so frigging important!" Leon said, shaking his head in bemusement. 

     "Everybody has an important role in this company; even you do, in some small way"

   The emphasis of the word 'small' made Leon want to hit him, but the knowledge that he'd be able to put Reeve's neck out of action for a month or so put him against such an idea; it'd not only be one sided, but could result in Leon being 'marked' and being fired was not something he wanted.

     "Oh…screw you" Leon muttered, turning away and stamping off. He thumped the flat of his palm against the departments note crowded message board to vent his spleen, and began to walk off when Reeves called back.

     "Hey! Don't take half the goddamned board with you!" 

   Leon frowned, and looked at his hand. About four or five pieces of paper were attached to his hand by some imperceptible suction; he grabbed them and slowly peeled them off, making a sound like peeling Velcro. It was like his hands were covered in glue…but they weren't, they looked and felt as normal as ever.

     _Like Velcro…_

Leon decided the best place to go was the washroom. He surreptitiously slipped out of the office area, and down the corridor. Leon stared at his hand, flexing it a few times. Why did it do that? It had stuck itself to the wall…once inside the toilets, he gazed in the mirror, blinking. He twisted the tap, a gush of water flowing out into his hands, with which he splashed his face.

    His hand didn't stick to the tap though…he'd been angry when it had happened and had wanted _something _to happen. Was this something that phased with his moods or was it something he could control?

     There was only place to experiment with it.

     Outside.

The building was quite a number of stories high, soaring up into the bluish sky above his head. Leon stared blankly at the wall; it looked quite uncompromising, and he felt as if it was stubbornly trying to resist his willpower. Leon was thinking, something he often did, but not about this sort of thing; he was pondering _climbing _the wall. No, not with any handy climbing equipment; Leon was considering doing it with his bare hands. Like a spider. 

   While he didn't share a spider's looks, he was certainly sharing a few attributes with them now…anyway this was beside the point.

    _Climbing the wall_.

   It was a little daunting to say the least. Climbing up a sheer wall was not one of his life ambitions, but now here he was giving it a try; his super sticky hands had given him something of an idea, and well…this was it. It was a preposterous idea. A ludicrous idea. A silly idea. A physics defying idea. And it might just work. 

    He walked up to the wall, as if facing his nemesis in a duel. He took a deep breath. Leon placed his left hand on the wall, feeling its cold roughness beneath his skin. He raised his right, and put it above the other. When Leon was sure his hands were pressed firmly up against the wall, he took a deep breath…and lifted himself. To his surprise, he was lifting himself off the ground. He pressed his toes against the wall, and repeated the motion. Leon repeated the motion, hands coming away easily and securing themselves down just as easily. He licked his lips, and began to slowly but surely climb up the wall. By the time he'd reached the eighth floor, he turned and looked down. He stared down, at the impossibly distant ground where he'd begun his climb, the windows stretching down into near infinity. But he was only eight floors up!

     The adrenaline backwash began to tack effect. He grinned like a child, lips stretching so far he was starting to look like a monkey.

     "WAHOOOOO!!!!" he crowed in triumph. Leon started climbing at a running pace, reaching the rooftop easily; but that wasn't enough for him, catapulting himself upwards and over the roofs of the commercial area, springing as high and as far as he would and could. Leon landed on top of some solid metal crane support struts, laughing and breathing hard as if he'd just had the most intense experience of his life. And he had. Leon couldn't quite believe what he'd just done, it was like he'd just achieved a lifelong childhood dream, and after all he was laughing like a schoolboy. He looked back at the roof of the building where only a short while ago he'd been an ordinary worker. Leon was different, he knew this now. And…

   Something struck him. What about Claire? What about her? She had been showing the same signs of…change as he had. He knew now he had to get in touch with her. 

    Then, he felt a vibration on his belt, the vibration of the modern world getting back into contact with him. He reached for the phone, and pressed 'Receive'. 

    Claire sat at the desk, trying to concentrate on her work. For some reason though, this morning she just couldn't make those lines in front of her eyes make any sense. They were refusing to reassemble themselves as they were supposed to; was it those blemishes on her wrists that were doing it? Yes, occasionally she _did _find her eyes wandering over to the odd little skin protrusions on her wrists…but why? Why was it a concern?

   Claire reached for the coffee cup by her computer, maybe that would calm her down. She couldn't reach it. It was a clear foot away from her outstretched fingers; some joker from accounts had probably pushed it up the tabletop. 

    She grunted and reached again. Still, she couldn't reach the item in question. She flicked her wrist in a flurry of annoyance; what happened next was something Claire would never forget in her life, ever. There was the sound of something warm and sticky being dragged through a small hole. Something sticky and thick whipped out of her wrist, and clung with a vengeance onto the coffee cup, strands of silky threads stretching from the table surface too. Claire's eyes grew so wide they were like the polar opposites of black holes. Her mouth dropped open, as did the few other people who happened to be walking past at the time. She yanked the threads that seemed to be growing from the blemish on her left wrist. They didn't budge, clinging fast.  

     _Okay…_

   Claire got up, and walked calmly towards the exit; trailing her coffee mug behind her as it spilled its contents onto the carpet, staining it a faint brown as Claire affected her non-too nonchalant egress. 

    _Have to tell Leon, I have to tell Leon…_she thought, shakily pulling out her mobile phone. The threads got tangled on her phone, and with a growl of annoyance, she yanked it away from the clinging strands with a vehemence that was impressive.

    She dialled his number.

    After a few seconds of the monotonous ring-tone, Leon picked up.

     "Claire?"

     "Leon, something really weird is happening…!" she hissed.

     "You're telling me!" he replied, in a similarly urgent voice "Claire, meet me in the alley behind the building…I've got something to show you…" 

      Claire didn't know exactly what he was talking about, but she decided to go there anyway. If Leon sounded urgent, he obviously _really _needed to talk.  

      She didn't' bother putting her name in the signing out book, the office was so vast and bland nobody would notice she wasn't there for say…ten years?

      Claire started to amble down the stairwell, an odd sense of foreboding in her mind the further down she went. 

  Claire was giggling, cheeks red as she landed again. Leon's little trick had not failed to impress her, and now they were both crawling up every available surface, exchanging daft quips along the lines of 'I'm hanging on' or the well-worn chestnut of 'I'm the king of the world!'.

    "This is incredible!" Claire gasped, still half-laughing "It's just amazing! I mean….wow!"

     "No kidding!" Leon replied with a chuckle, flicking his wrist at her, launching a sticky web in her direction. Claire dodged with inhuman reflexes, sticking her tongue out at him as he missed. It was like a pair of children with their favourite toys all over again. The web hit a wall, and Leon quickly yanked it off. 

       "Damn, missed!" he said, chuckling.

       Claire looked out across the rooftops, a strange smile on her face.

        "My god…Leon…this is just…we're really different now! I mean, we're not just ordinary people; we've got this amazing power, and…now we can fire webs and we can climb walls…!"

         Webs…jumping…

     Leon put the two words together; and a roguish but incredibly amusing concept crept into his head. He felt his body tingle as he touched Claire's shoulder, a broad grin on his face.

     "Claire…" he said, barely containing his glee "…ever seen Spiderman?"

     "Of course, this is kind of like it isn't it?" Claire replied.

     "Well, actually…I was referring to how he gets around…"

     Claire stared at him blankly for a moment; then she began to vigorously shake her head, face disbelieving.

      "No way, no way"

      "Come on" Leon teased, temptingly "Wanna live life on the high road?"

      She replicated Leon's own devilish grin. After all, what harm could it possibly do? It was just a bit of fun after all…so her thrill-seeking side took over from there.

       "You're on"****


	4. Different Now

CHAPTER 3  
  
It was Rebecca's lunch break. Rebecca termed to herself that her lunch break was the time when she wanted to relax, talk with her workmates and generally let herself go for sixty minutes of her eight-hour working day. It was a warm day, and she was quite enjoying the air in the comfortable outside atmosphere of the Café Puerzo just down the road from her work place. Chicken Fajita in hand, she was having a well-earned chuckle with her friends, an eager contrast to the quite serious work she was often engaged in.  
"The way I see it" Rebecca said, running a hand through her soft brown hair "Ed's really got to loosen up; I know he works as hard as the rest of us, but he can't snap at us like that"  
"Come on 'Becca" Michelle, the milk chocolate skinned beauty sitting opposite Rebecca and grinning like a wild-child "You know he's just doing his job, hell we all are"  
"Yeah, but he doesn't need to put the boot in" Rebecca replied, at a near grunt "You're just saying that because you've got the hots for the guy"  
"Now that is bullshit" Michelle replied, with a chuckle.  
"If I was you then, I'd watch what you say around other people-"  
Rebecca trailed off as she realised Michelle was no longer listening to her. Michelle was staring into the distance behind her in a slightly wide- eyed and bewildered way. Rebecca leaned towards her, waving a hand in front of her friend's face.  
"Uh...Michelle...?" she said.  
"Turn around, Becca" Michelle replied calmly.  
Rebecca did. What Rebecca saw was unbelievable; not simply because the two figures swinging between buildings on strands of spider-web were doing exactly that, but also because Rebecca had a feeling that she knew who it was who was doing it.  
"Oh...shit." She breathed.  
  
The air tore into Leon's face as he swung at high speed across from one building to the next; unleashing webbing to give him another point to swing from, and then changing direction rapidly as he did so. The ground surged beneath him at a frightening pace, one which was intensifying what with Claire to his left chuckling and whooping in her determination to finish the race. Neither of them were particularly good web-slingers; their movements were both still quite jerky, and their swing often had something to be desired. Yet, from Leon's perspective, they were actually doing it.  
Leon didn't know what gift it was he'd been given, and what it was yet. One thing for sure however, he was glad as hell that they had got it. Claire and himself were different from everyone else; human-spiders. Their swinging continued; towers of shimmering glass sweeping past as the two battled for dominance. Then, Claire, who had apparently been thinking, asked a very pertinent question.  
"Leon!" Claire yelled "How do we stop?!"  
"We...uh...!"  
Leon didn't know. The problem was that he didn't want to stop where he was because he was some fifty feet from the ground, and also that if he did stop then somebody might decide calling the press would be a good idea. As fun as their discovery was, having the media crawling all over two of Umbrella Inc.'s prime targets wouldn't make it too difficult for Umbrella to make the spider virus connection to a certain pair of care-free skyscraper joyriders. Leon swung around a corner, followed by Claire.  
"I don't know, um...improvise!" he called back.  
"Oh, that's really helpful!" Claire retorted. There was a batch of warehouses ahead near the dock, all of which looked like very tempting hiding places for the time being. The buildings were quite old, and looked like nobody had been particularly bothered to clean the rust and decay off of them for quite some time. Their signs were in faded red, and whoever it was whose logo was currently faintly stencilled on their signs were clearly long lost in the mists of bankruptcy.  
Leon adjusted his swing so that he came in lower, and aimed for the roof of the... "SHIT!" he exclaimed, as his flailing feet met the roof and sent him tumbling spectacularly along its surface, before coming to rest in a slightly bruised heap by a hatch in the roof. Claire swung overhead, smiling broadly. "Nice landing! Remind me not to-" "Claire, there's a huge-" There was the sound of something solid meeting something else that was quite solid too. ".... Sign" Leon finished, wincing as Claire slid down the enormous billboard ad and collapsed in the roof-surface in front of him like an undercooked wedge of pasta. "Ow" Claire complained as she stood up, shakily. "Nice landing" he smirked. Claire gave him a sour look, and stretched her aching back. "Ouch...come on, let's get out of here." There was the sound of siren wails in the distance that sounded as if they could just be possibly getting closer. "And I'd say we move quickly" Leon added.  
  
"YOU...MORONS!!" Seeing Rebecca angry wasn't something Claire thought she'd ever see, but god knows, somehow it had finally happened. Chris and Jill had arrived home a minute or two ago to the raging inferno that was now Rebecca venting her wrath on the slightly bruised pair. Leon and Claire lay back in the sofa in the sitting room as Rebecca paced up and down, face bright red as she emphasized just how unbelievably angry she was. It was maybe two hours later, and the buzz that had been going around about the 'real spiderman' had quickly died as nobody saw who'd done it. Some extreme stuntmen took responsibility for the 'stunt', they would read in the next day's paper, but for now that apocryphal news story was of no importance. It was warm inside, and it was getting hotter and hotter as Rebecca yelled. "Didn't you know better?! Of all the...stupid things to do you went and did that?! What in gods name possessed you to go swinging around the rooftops like Tarzan lord of the apes?!"  
Leon and Claire exchanged guilty glances.  
"We just wanted to have some fun" Claire mumbled.  
Rebecca's look could have killed a wildebeest at close range.  
"Some fun. You two have undergone genetic mutations unlike any the world has ever seen, and you felt like flaunting them for all the world to see? Have you forgotten what we're doing? And why we don't want to attract too much attention?"  
"Rebecca, we're well aware of that" Leon said, a little sharply "But it's me and Claire who've mutated, me and Claire alone. You don't understand what it's like."  
Rebecca's mouth hung open as Claire fired a barrage too.  
"We're not your pet science experiments Rebecca, we're as human as the rest of the people in this city. It's...an unbelievable feeling..." Claire trailed off, staring at her hands.  
At this inappropriate juncture, Chris strolled in, cigarette unlit. He stared at Leon and Claire, eyes narrowing. It was clear that Chris too was unimpressed with their adrenaline-fuelled webslinging the day before.  
"Oh. The spiders are in the glass tank again" he remarked sarcastically "Nice going guys, nearly blowing our cover and all that"  
"Oh for crying out loud-" Claire protested, tired of being constantly berated by everyone else "It was a one off! An experiment!"  
Chris shook his head at his little sister, and sighed wonderingly.  
"I'd have thought you'd knew better than that."  
Leon was about to argue with him, when Jill casually walked in, a sour expression on her face, and dropped the final nuke.  
"I don't think we can even trust you being out of the house; your new 'powers' seem to have gone to your head."  
Leon turned to Jill like a schoolboy who'd just been grounded, and said  
"What? You're going to make us stay in the damned house? Until what?"  
"Until you both learn some self control" she said coldly "It's difficult enough what with you being...different now."  
Different now. Leon sank back into the sofa, his hearing going dead as the figures raged at him and Claire. Different. Now. Those words seemed to echo in Leon's suddenly cavernous brain, bouncing off its internal walls and reverberating infinitely. They were different. All of a sudden, Leon was aware of what that meant. They weren't the same anymore. To Jill, Chris and Rebecca, they weren't the same people anymore. They were....different now. Underneath their anger, their scowls and icy remarks, Leon felt a tingle in that secretive seventh sense he'd been gifted with – fear. The others were scared of them, scared of what they had become. Leon looked at Claire, she looked right back; her beautiful eyes glimmered with fear.  
We're different now.  
  
"Different now" Leon said, shaking his head as Claire flopped onto the bed beside him, both having retreated to Claire's double bed just to escape the angry glares of the rest of the house. Even Sherry, usually so sparky in her nature was looking considerably more timid around them.  
"I don't understand" Claire whispered, huddling up beside Leon "Chris treated me like a stranger. Why was he so cold?"  
"Because they don't understand" Leon replied, simply "They don't understand us. We're different from them, you see?"  
"But..." Claire chewed her lip, fingering the cross around her neck as her grey T-Shirt heaved over a body that Leon couldn't help but stare at momentarily "...We're still the same people!"  
"To them we're..." Leon waved his hands "I don't know. Not-human."  
Leon had also dressed down, wearing a black baseball shirt and jeans as he lay beside Claire. He felt a shiver of surprise and mild pleasure as she tightened her grip on his arm.  
"We're freaks." She whispered, voice cracking "Freaks."  
As Claire began to cry, Leon held her close to his chest. He felt the tears soak his shirt, and stared out of the window into the sun-drenched neighbourhood; men, women and children...none of them like Leon and Claire were. He had never felt so alone.  
He looked at Claire, and breathed in the gently perfumed scent of her soft auburn hair.  
Not totally alone though... 


End file.
